Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is set to announce a "blitz" on business bureaucracy at the first-ever Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham today (21 October), as part of the government's Regulatory Action Plan. 

The government previously outlined proposals for a "radical shake up" designed to save businesses "billions" as more regulators are axed and core legal duties are streamlined.

The pensions industry has not been excluded from the review, with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) pledging at the time to do its part to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and improve data sharing as part of the government's plans.

The government has now provided a further update on this work as part of a raft of announcements at the Regional Investment Summit, alongside the launch of the Sterling 20, confirming plans to overhaul the regulatory system. 

According to Reeves, the system is being redesigned to ensure that it supports growth, is targeted and proportionate, transparent and predictable, and is able to be adapted to keep pace with market innovations. 

The action plan outlined the government's next steps on this work, alongside the full range of pledges from regulators, and is designed to deliver a regulatory system that supports innovation and economic growth while ensuring accountability for the quality of regulations introduced, as well as the way in which they are implemented and enforced.

However, the government said that, in addition to the immediate actions in the action plan, there will also be "real, system-wide reforms" over the course of parliament.

These reforms are expected to focus on simplifying the structure of the system; ensuring regulation is proportionate; driving regulator performance and capability, as well as ensuring accountability is robust; and making sure that the purpose and duties of all our regulators are clear.

Alongside this, the government said that it will continue to assess the effectiveness of the UK’s overall approach in delivering essential infrastructure and investment.

"Our mission is clear: to create the right environment for investment through our regulatory reforms, to crowd in capital through our public financial institutions, to break down silos to collaboration on local projects, and to support innovation and growth throughout the UK," Reeves is set to tell those at the summit. 

In the pensions space in particular, TPR has committed to monitoring its engagements with schemes and employers seeking to reduce unnecessary regulatory burden whilst maintaining current high levels of compliance.

As part of this it will monitor the quality and value of regulatory interaction and make sure that new interventions are not just clearly linked to delivery of better outcomes for savers but are also efficient and effective in delivery.

TPR will also conduct a review of its scheme return and supervisory return data collection requirements by the end of March 2026 to identify options to reduce unnecessary burdens on schemes.

Subject to the outcome of the review, the government will consider how and what TPR captures, making any amendments to legislation as required.

In addition to this, TPR will review the amount of capital reserving that master trusts are required to hold, with a view to safely freeing up millions of pounds for schemes by the end of 2025/26.

TPR also committed to developing an innovation framework and criteria to trial pension innovation ideas and launching a hub to test a variety of innovation services with the market, both of which have already been done and rolled out to market.

The regulator will also continue to encourage consolidation and consideration of investment in productive assets through the value-for-money framework, which will bring public disclosure of long-term risk-adjusted net returns to help drive competition, growth and enhanced member outcomes. 

In advance of this, TPR will drive consolidation in savers’ interests and encourage the voluntary disclosure of asset allocation data to shine a light on the relationship between asset allocation and net performance.

---